The return of Star Trek to television — or CBS All Access — is a welcome sight for the series’ 50th anniversary. The adventures of the Federation might be overshadowed by the gigantic Star Wars franchise in today’s sci-fi landscape, but that doesn’t mean the series is dead in the water.
The build-up to Star Trek: Discovery has been full of surprises that will keep fans happy, including a new set of supporting comics and novels that have become hallmarks. But one question on fans’ minds has been the decision to place the show before Kirk and Enterprise from the original series. Luckily, Nicholas Meyer cleared this situation up during Saturday’s Mission: New York Trek convention. Meyer helped bring Star Trek back to life at the movies with Wrath of Khan and now he’s on the Discovery writing team.
According to Meyer, the reasoning behind Discovery being a prequel is simple:
“He found a space in the original chronology where there was room to maneuver,” Meyer said, and then related this decision to his own experience in writing Sherlock Holmes novels. “You always are looking for gaps in the chronology.”
Meyer went on to call the decision on Fuller’s part “very clever,” while fellow writer Kirsten Beyer said that even though the show will be set during a future era created in the 1960’s that Discovery will ”Honor the integrity[of the original Star Trek] without looking silly.”
“All art is the product of the time it was made in,” Meyer said, “No matter how futuristic we are, we’ll look dated in 10 years.”
This is certainly a sweet spot for the series to exist in. Too far in the past might bring up memories of Enterprise, which has some fans divided despite some critically acclaimed work during later seasons. A decade ahead of the Enterprise‘s adventures would allow some interesting stories that use visuals we might’ve seen in the original series while also defining events that would impact Trek down the road.
All and all, Discovery seems like an interesting entry into the long-running franchise and makes CBS All-Access something that is definitely worth looking at if the series can pull it off.
(Via Screen Crush / Inverse)
